There is no question that 2024 has been an exciting year for gaming overall. As far as RPG’s are concerned we got to witness the release of video games like Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth, Dragon’s Dogma 2, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, Zenless Zone Zero and Black Myth: Wukong. While each of those games gained mainstream attention and appealed to casuals as well as hardcore RPG gamers many would agree that Metaphor: ReFantazio ended being the best RPG of 2024. Metaphor: ReFantazio was released back in October 2024 and has only managed to sell roughly around one million copies worldwide. While opening sales for Metaphor: ReFantazio could have been better both critics and gamers mutually agree that its one of the most addictive RPGs of 2024. Metaphor: ReFantazio received a Metascore of “94” and has been praised for giving off Persona 5 vibes. Despite, its popularity Metaphor: ReFantazio seemingly appeals to a small percentage of Western gamers who are more into “M” rated video games along with established franchises that have been around for more than a decade. Despite, Final Fantasy XVI selling roughly around three million copies following its launch during Summer 2023 many people have forgotten about the game itself. Final Fantasy XVI has been labeled a failure by Square Enix because it underperformed in sales despite receiving great reviews from various gaming publications. It should also be noted that Square Enix was once seen as the King of RPG’s due to the success the company had with the Final Fantasy series especially FFVII.

However, within the past several years it seems like the Final Fantasy franchise has been declining in popularity. Final Fantasy XV from 2016 was a commercial success eventually reaching around ten million copies in sales across the PlayStation 5, Xbox One and PC. However, there are some who feel that FFXV is overrated and was only a success because it was a strong entry compared to what we got with FFXIII and FFXIV. Also, Square Enix had their share of failed games within the past couple of years including Babylon’s Fall, Forsaken and Marvel’s Avengers which ended up costing Square Enix millions of dollars. It seems like Square Enix is a shell of what it used to be in terms of video game production. At this point Sega’s Yakuza franchise is more popular than the Final Fantasy series and can possibly rival Atlus more today than Square Enix can. Between Metaphor: ReFantazio and Persona 5 it seems like Atlus has dominated the RPG genre of gaming while Square Enix is struggling to make high quality games that people actually care about. It also seems like Square Enix has somewhat of a grim future as it was revealed that the company had lost close to $2 billion in market value since Final Fantasy XVI was released back in Summer 2023. It should also be noted that Metaphor ReFantazio: was seen as the best video game of 2024 by both IGN and GameSpot while being named the best RPG of that year as well. Metaphor: ReFantazio is going to seen as one of the best RPG’s of the 2020’s decade and Atlus has yet to release Persona 6 which everyone has high expectations for in the future.